Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas SP Getaways

Goose Island is the oldest of the Texas coastal state parks; Bryan Frazier takes us there this week for a state park getaway.

Goose Island SP is renowned and loved for lots of reasons, and a great place to go. It’s a smaller park; it’s only about 320 acres. But there’s still a lot to do. It has lots of hiking trails, there’s even biking along the roads inside the park. You’ve got a great place to see whooping cranes, right against the federal wildlife refuge there on the upper coast—and it’s beautiful as well. You’ve got this outcropping of big coastal live oak trees; and its home to the Big Tree, which is a thousand year old coastal live oak tree. It was the state champion in 1969, and it still remains to this day just a phenomenon of nature. But the fishing there…very popular species in Texas, whether you’re talking about flounder, redfish or speckled trout. Right there at the boat ramp, you can go right in. It’s also very popular with waterfowl hunters. It’s one of the few places to launch an airboat to duck hunt in that area. The camping there—even the tent camping—is really, really incredible. But you can camp right on the bay front. In fact, you can fish out of your campsite, and a lot of people do—and those campsites go fast. So, Goose Island SP is definitely a stop on the map.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show…check out State Park videos on the TPW channel on YouTube…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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